Former Kansas basketball walk-on Evan Manning will be joining the Arizona Wildcats’ in an advisory role.
The son of the best Kansas Jayhawk to ever step onto the Allen Fieldhouse hardwood will be a consultant for one of the latest schools to join the Big 12.
Evan Manning’s new title at Arizona is Director of Basketball Operations. He will be responsible for overseeing team events, travel, equipment, and other activities. David Blatt, who coached the Cleveland Cavaliers team that made the NBA Finals in 2015, will also take on a similar role.
He was on his father’s staff at Wake Forest as an assistant coach and director of player development during his tenure from the 2016-17 season until his firing in 2020. Since then, he has served as a graduate assistant at Gonzaga and an assistant at Army.
Manning was a walk-on at Kansas, spending four years with the program from 2012-2016. He totaled 26 points during his Jayhawk career and just 108 minutes played. He was also a member of two Big 12 Tournament-winning teams at KU and a squad that made it to the Elite Eight in 2016.
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Danny Manning, his father, was the centerpiece of the ‘Danny and the Miracles‘ team coached by Larry Brown that won the national championship in 1988. He is the all-time leading scorer at Kansas and the most accomplished player in the program’s history. Manning went on to get drafted No. 1 overall in the NBA and was inducted to the College Basketball Hall of Fame.
His major when he graduated was sports management, and it has gone well for him. The 30-year-old Lawrence native is carving out a strong name for himself in the realm of coaching, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him hired as a head coach one day.
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